Monday, April 22, 2013

The Last Email!!!!!!!


Hello my dear family!
This past week has gone by uber fast, but so much good has happened. This past week we did what we call a Church Tour. We give a Tour of the Church, but we also teach the first lesson while we do the Tour. This past week we did one with Howard, who is one of our investigators. It was such a great experience. We had the a couple from our Branch there as well. I enjoy so very much hearing other's testimonies of the Gospel. And also watching Howard and his faith in the Savior grow as we taught.
 
We also did another Church Tour with Edward. Just the fact that we found him again was a miracle and we feel like he has been prepared to hear this message. As we were teaching the First lesson, which is about the Restoration, he was just eating everything we said up. We taught him that because God loves us, He doesn't want us to be in darkness and confusion, so He calls a Prophet and gives him the Priesthood or Authority to direct God's Church. But how when God's children (us-all of us) don't listen, God takes away that authority. Edward then stopped us and said, "Yeah! There has always been prophets throughout the Bible. They are really important. Wait, is there another Prophet on the earth today!!??" We were then able to testify that there is. We are not in darkness. There will always be a a Prophet on the earth. We then invited him to read the Book of Mormon.
 
I know that it is through the Book of Mormon that we can know the truth- that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that this is God's Church on the earth today. I know that this is true because of the Holy Ghost. It is not because of what my parents taught me, although they did teach me very well, I still had to know for myself that these things were true. I know that this is Christ's Church! I know that the Priesthood has been restored to the earth once more. I know that Heavenly Father loves us! I know that Jesus is the Christ!!!
 
I love you all!!!!  I will see you soon! :) Have a great week! 
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
-- 
Con Amor, 

Hermana Wadsworth 

Monday, April 15, 2013

This is our 2nd to last letter!!!!


Dear Family!!!
I just have to say, I love you all! And I also have to say, I love being a missionary!!!
I am running out of time with writing right now... so this letter may or may not be a shorty, just saying....
Highlights this past week:
I went to the Temple with all of the departing missionaries, it was a lot of fun! AND I am the only Hermana/Sister going home this transfer so I have 10 Elders all to myself to carry my bags and everything... haha! (That is what President said to me at least... haha!)
We set a date with Mat and Michael (they are a part member family) We are so excited for them! They came to church yesterday and we have a lesson with them tomorrow. They will be baptized May 11th!
AND we also had an AMAZING lesson with Howard and he came to Church yesterday too! We will be setting a date with him this next week for mid May too!
Hm.... what else happened.... MISTY GOT BAPTIZED!!! I don't know if you remember her. Hermana Penrose and I taught her in Ottumwa and she got baptized this past weekend. We were able to go too!!! I forgot my camera today so I will send pictures next week... OR I could just wait to show you later. Haha! :)
SUNDAY!!! HUGE MIRACLE! Okay, so we were in Relief Society and our Branch President came in and said, "There is a little boy, who is 2, wearing a orange jacket that is missing and he was last seen on Henry Street. If you want to leave to go look for him you can." SO, we left to go look for him. We were all just praying and asking Heavenly Father to direct us in some way to find him. We were all listening to the Spirit and letting anyone that we saw on the street to look for him. We then say this lady walking down the street with a little boy and we told her about the little boy that is missing and she said, "this is him! we found him!" I could not hold back my tears and we got out of the car and gave her a huge hug! I could only imagine what she was feeling like. We talked with her for a little and found out that she is actually  member of the Church! She hasn't gone for a long time and in fact, her records aren't in the Branch either. What a blessing!! What a miracle!!!
I know that God loves us! I know that He gave us His Son so that we can become better people and change. I know that Christ is our Savior. I know that the Book of Mormon is true! I know that miracles have not ceased!! That there are no coincidences in this life. Only God given miracles! I know that families are Eternal! I love you all so much!!! Have a great week!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
 -- 
Con Amor,

Hermana Wadsworth 

Monday, April 8, 2013

18 days people!


 I have totally slacked the last few weeks-MUH BAD! Today you get 3 for the price of 1. I know you probably don't think I'm cool because of all the slacking and stuff on my end... but Deb wrote to me today to tell me "you are cool! haha!" so... there! 

18 days people!! Can you believe it!? 

Come to our house April 28th from 7-10 pm to say hello. Her homecoming talk will be at 8 am that morning at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints located on the west side of Greenfield north of Southern, south of Broadway. She would love to see you all there!
Enjoy this weeks letter: 

Dear Family!!
OH HOW I LOVE SPRING WEATHER!!! The past week I haven't even wore my boats because it was so warm outside... I LOVE IT! The trees are starting to show little buds and hopefully in the next week we will start to see some flowers bloom. I love spring! I wish Arizona had spring like they do here. I love the 4 seasons! Isn't it so wonderful that our loving Father in Heaven has created with world for us with all the seasons, beautiful colors and the lovely plants! I love living on earth! All the experiences that we have every week that bring us closer to Him, if we let them.
I have been thinking a lot about just that, agency. Every day, the gift is ours to choose to have a good day or to not. We have the choice to get mad or to not let things bug us. "So, be like a duck and just let the water run right off your back..." I loved the talk by Elder Ellis I believe that he said every morning we should wake up and sing at the top of our lungs "Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I have a wonderful feeling everything is going my way!" Every morning we have this song that wakes us up and it is just totally upbeat and it says "Good Morning" Every morning really is good! We should continuously strive to keep every morning and good morning and every afternoon, even and all the little experiences and moments along the way be GOOD! Because they are good! How blessed we are!!!
We also must remember though, that if we do choose to get mad or have a negative thought, we can repent. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ did all that he did so that we could repent and change and become better and ALWAYS have a good time! I know that Christ is our Friend! He loves us and wants to help us! He wants us to have JOY!! And is through His Atonement that we can experience that joy and also to be able to change and become new people. I am so thankful for this wonderful Church that is His. For the chance that we have EVERY WEEK to change, to become more like Him as we partake of the sacrament and come with a "broken heart and a contrite spirit."
I know that the Church is true! I know that the Book of Mormon is true by the power of the Holy Ghost, not by any other means. I know that Thomas S. Monson is God's Prophet on the earth today! And how wonderful it was to listen to his voice this past weekend!  
I love you all! Have a great week!!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOX
-- 
Con Amor,

Hermana Wadsworth

Last weeks letter: 

Hello Family!
So, this email may or may not be shorter then the rest. There are a lot of things to get done since I am coming home soon and so... bare with me here... ha ha!
This past week came and went so SO fast! I love being a missionary! I have to tell you something that happened on Saturday.
Do you remember me talking about Nita?! Nita was an investigator I was teaching with Hermana Penrose in Ottumwa. Well, I don't know if I told you this or not, but she moved about 1 month before her baptism to Burlington. She was baptized in Burlington and has lived there ever since. WELL, her daughter, Sierra, was scheduled to be baptized last Saturday. Since this last week was so very busy with District meeting on one day and Interviews on another, we didn't have a lot of time to go finding new investigators. The plans were sent and Hermana Stroud, Smith and I were going to go finding that day. OH, I forgot to mention, Burlington is in our district-which means that we could go to the baptism if we could find a ride there. ANYWAYS, long story short, on Friday night, while I was praying, I said "Heavenly Father, tomorrow is Sierra's baptism, and we haven't found a new investigator this week and we are going to work hard to find one for the hour of time that we have scheduled tomorrow"  (side note here, we still had to plan for our next week so we really only had 1 hour scheduled to find). I accepted the fact that I was not going to go to Sierra's baptism. I was sad, but I had to put the Lord first and what He wanted me to do. I wanted to accomplish our goal!
Unannounced to me, Hermana Stroud that morning received a thought to her mind "Hermana Wadsworth really needs to be at that baptism". So, she textedthe Elders in Burlington and arranged it. During the day, I really tried not to think too much about the baptism. I was really bumbed that I missed Nita's, but the plans were set. So, we went and we met some really, REALLY cool people in this trailer park and we are going to start teaching a couple of them this week. BUT we still had not found that new investigator. Well, after we were done at the trailer park, we had to go home to get something... and come to think of it. I cannot remember what that 'something' was, but it was important for the other activities we had for the rest of the day.
We went down stairs and Hermana Stroud saw someone (who I did not know) and she opened the lady's car door and then I asked her "Who is that?! I don't recognize her?" She said, "Well, Heavenly Father wants you to know that He loves you, that is a kind Sister from Burlington that is going to be taking us to the baptism." I could not hold back my tears.
When we got to the baptism, not even Nita knew that I was coming... I gave her a big huge hug! My heart was so filled with joy! And just thinking about it really brings that warmth back into my heart.
I know that Heavenly Father loves us! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and also the Bestest Friend we could EVER want/need. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I have prayed about it and have received that witness through the power of the Holy Ghost. I am so excited for this coming weekend we have to listen to God's Prophet, Thomas S. Monson! I know that he is a Prophet of God and that he leads and guides this Church, which is Christ's Church!
I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!!!!!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

-- 
Con Amor,

Hermana Wadsworth 

The email from the week before THAT:

HELLLOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you all so much!!!!!!!!! I hope that you all had a FANTASTIC week and that this next week will be even better than the last. :) HE LIVES!!!! OUR SAVIOR LIVES!!!!!!! I know that He lives! I know that He did what He did so that we do not have to go through this life alone.
I have to tell you about this really cool experience that we had this past week. On Saturday we were checking up on some referrals and decided to just walk there. It was really fun! The more I am out the more I enjoy finding. And talking WITH people and not AT people. Anyways, we had done our finding and then we were heading to the car. There was this man that was walking just in front of us so fearless Hermana Stroud stepped up her strides and started talking to him and Hermana Smith and I were right behind him talking as well. He wasn't the most friendly of guys, but we walked and talked with him till he went into the Bar. Still heading to the car we were walking through the square when we saw this man just walk right in front of us.... we kept walking when the Spirit just told us, "STOP! Go talk to him." So we all just turned around and headed straight to him. We sat at talked about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon with him. He told us his name is Brett and that he just got out of prison, he said that he had a little bit of religion, but that he hasn't really done anything with it. Just as we were talking with him I really could feel how much God loved him and I think I said it at least one time and Hermana Stroud and Smith also did. It really was such an awesome experience! We gave him the Book of Mormon and also our number. He said he didn't want to give us his address or anything. Which was fine.  Well, that is not the end of the story! Yesterday at Church, Brother Lance (who is 2nd Counselor in the Branch Presidency) came up to us. He told us of how this less-active named Brett really wants to start coming back to church. He said that he just got out of prison and that he wants to change his life around. We don't know 100% if it is the SAME Brett, but I feel like it is!
I know that God lives and that He answers our prayers and that it is through us that He meets their needs. I know that there are no such things as a "coincidence"  It is so humbling to be an instrument in His hands! To help others come unto Him! I know that this really is the work of the Master! That He loves us! I know that He lives! Let us always remember Him and what He did for us every day! And to not hesitate in giving thanks to Him and asking for His help. I know that Families are Forever!
I LOVE YOU!! HAPPY EASTER!!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

-- 
Con Amor,

Hermana Wadsworth